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How Ice Splits Boulders and Breaks Roads

5th grade nonfiction passage about frost wedging: 193 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

5th grade nonfiction frost wedging 193 words

How Ice Splits Boulders and Breaks Roads

Every winter, road crews fill potholes. Every spring, new ones seem to appear. The cause is a pushy kind of weathering called frost wedging, and it works on mountain boulders the same way.

Water is strange. Most liquids shrink as they get colder, but water does something different at the very end. When it freezes, it takes up more space. Ice is about one tenth bigger than the water it came from.

Now picture a small crack in a rock or a road. After rain or snowmelt, water slips into the crack. When the temperature drops below freezing, that water turns to ice and expands. The ice pushes on the walls of the crack with great force, and the crack grows a little wider.

Then the day warms up, the ice melts, and more water trickles deeper into the widened gap. At night it freezes again. This cycle of freezing and thawing can repeat hundreds of times in a single winter. Slowly, the crack becomes a split, and a chunk of rock or pavement pops loose.

In high mountains, frost wedging makes piles of broken stone called scree on the slopes below cliffs.

Questions

  1. What is the name of the weathering described in this passage? in the text

  2. What happens to water when it freezes? in the text

  3. How does water first get into a crack? in the text

  4. Why does a crack grow wider when ice forms in it? think about it

  5. Why is the cycle of freezing and thawing so powerful? think about it

  6. What do we call the piles of broken stone below mountain cliffs? in the text

Words to know

weathering
the breaking down of rock by wind, water, ice or heat
expands
gets bigger or takes up more space
thawing
melting after being frozen
pavement
the hard surface of a road or sidewalk
cycle
a set of events that happens again and again
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One passage, three levels

The same topic and facts written three ways, so a mixed class can read and talk about one text. Each group’s sheet shows only a shape; the key says which is which.

● Easier · 166 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.2

Every winter, road crews fill potholes. Every spring, new ones appear. The cause is called frost wedging. It breaks mountain boulders the same way.

Water is odd. Most liquids shrink as they get colder. But when water freezes, it takes up more space. Ice is about one tenth bigger than the water it came from.

Picture a small crack in a rock or a road. After rain or snowmelt, water slips into the crack. When it gets below freezing, the water turns to ice and expands. The ice pushes on the walls of the crack with great force. The crack gets a little wider.

Then the day warms up and the ice melts. More water trickles deeper into the gap. At night it freezes again. This freezing and thawing can repeat hundreds of times in one winter. Slowly the crack becomes a split, and a chunk of rock or pavement pops loose.

In high mountains, frost wedging makes piles of broken stone called scree below cliffs.

▲ This passage · 193 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 4.9

Every winter, road crews fill potholes. Every spring, new ones seem to appear. The cause is a pushy kind of weathering called frost wedging, and it works on mountain boulders the same way.

Water is strange. Most liquids shrink as they get colder, but water does something different at the very end. When it freezes, it takes up more space. Ice is about one tenth bigger than the water it came from.

Now picture a small crack in a rock or a road. After rain or snowmelt, water slips into the crack. When the temperature drops below freezing, that water turns to ice and expands. The ice pushes on the walls of the crack with great force, and the crack grows a little wider.

Then the day warms up, the ice melts, and more water trickles deeper into the widened gap. At night it freezes again. This cycle of freezing and thawing can repeat hundreds of times in a single winter. Slowly, the crack becomes a split, and a chunk of rock or pavement pops loose.

In high mountains, frost wedging makes piles of broken stone called scree on the slopes below cliffs.

■ Harder · 195 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 7.3

Each winter, road crews patch potholes, and each spring, new ones seem to materialize. The culprit is a forceful kind of weathering known as frost wedging, and it operates on mountain boulders in precisely the same manner.

Water behaves unusually. Most liquids contract as they grow colder, but when water freezes, it occupies more space than it did as a liquid. Ice is roughly one tenth larger than the water from which it formed.

Now imagine a narrow crack in a rock or a road surface. After a rainstorm or a snowmelt, water slips into the crack. When the temperature falls below freezing, that water turns to ice and expands, pressing against the walls of the crack with tremendous force, and the crack widens slightly.

Then the day warms, the ice melts, and more water trickles deeper into the enlarged gap. At night it freezes once more. This cycle of freezing and thawing can repeat hundreds of times during a single winter. Gradually, the crack becomes a split, and a chunk of rock or pavement breaks loose.

In high mountains, frost wedging produces heaps of shattered stone called scree on the slopes beneath the cliffs.

Download as one PDF

How to use it

  1. Press Read it big (or B) to put the text on the projector, or Full screen (F) to fill the whole screen.
  2. Ask the questions one at a time and use Show answer when the class has decided. A shows or hides every answer.
  3. Print student copy for the class, or Print with answers for yourself.

Ideas for class

  • Before reading, put weathering, expands, thawing, pavement and cycle on the board with their meanings from the Words to know section and have students predict what the text will be about.
  • Read it aloud once while students follow along, then have them reread it alone or with a partner. At a calm 100 words a minute it takes about 2 minutes to read aloud.
  • Use the Read it big button (or B) to put the text on the projector, and Show answer on one question at a time so the class commits to an answer first.
  • Question 4 asks the reader to infer. Ask students to point to the words in the passage that led them to their answer.
  • Ask students to write one question the passage did not answer, then look for the answer in a book or on a classroom screen.
  • Print the student copy for independent work and keep the answer-key copy for yourself.

Related

Questions

What reading level is "How Ice Splits Boulders and Breaks Roads"?

It was written for 5th grade. It has 193 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 4.9. That is a formula's estimate from sentence length and syllables, and it is not a Lexile or a guided reading level, so check it against your students.

What do the questions ask?

There are six. 4 ask for something the text says directly and 2 ask the reader to work something out from clues. Each has an answer in the key, and the answers are written as a teacher would accept them, not as the only possible wording.

How long does it take to read?

About 2 minutes read aloud at 100 words a minute. For a one-minute fluency check, paste it into the fluency timer and use the word count.

Can I print it?

Yes. Print student copy gives the passage, the questions with lines to write on, and the word meanings. Print with answers gives the same page with the answers filled in. Both are made in your browser.

Is this passage from a published book?

No. It was written for Peabody Teach, so there is no book to buy and no login to read it.

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